Media Player Connectivity Gives You Control over Your Movies

To get control of your music and movies back from Firefox's default settings, install Media Player Connectivity, a free Firefox plug-in that allows you to specify what external player opens when you click on a certain video type.

One problem I run into often when I'm surfing the Web and watching video or downloading music is that Firefox will automatically open videos I click on in the preferred media player for the type of video I'm downloading. The same is true with MP3s; they open in my preferred media player, or in some cases in the browser, meaning I can't navigate away from the page without stopping the movie or MP3.

To get control of your music and movies back from Firefox's default settings, install Media Player Connectivity, a free Firefox plug-in that allows you to specify what external player opens when you click on a certain video type. This way, all of your media launches in your preferred external player, and you can watch it while continuing to surf the Web in another window.

When I stumble across a QuickTime movie on the Web, I really don't want to wait for QuickTime to launch--inside or outside of my browser--in order to watch it. I'd rather route the movie to VLC and let VLC work its magic. Firefox, on the other hand, stubbornly opens QuickTime by default anyway. With Media Player Connectivity, I can tell Firefox to specifically use VLC for all QuickTime movies. I can even tell Firefox to route RealPlayer movies to VLC as well, but set all Windows Media Video files to open in Media Player Classic or KMPlayer if I prefer.

Firefox allows you to set a number of these preferences in the Options/Applications window, but you have to set them on a codec by codec basis. Media Player Connectivity allows you to group by type of file without having to know which codec is the one you really want to open in which player.

Best of all, if you're like me and hate when Firefox (or any browser for that matter) opens a video or MP3 inside the browser, this extension forces Firefox to open it in an external player. This way you don't have to click the back button after clicking on a video, and you can go on surfing the Web while the MP3 or video is playing in the background or off to the side. You could even close Firefox entirely and the media would continue streaming.

Media Player Connectivity is free, and supports most popular file types, including MP3, OGG, AAC, Windows Media Video and Audio, Real Media files, and even playlists like .PLS and .M3U files commonly used by Web radio stations.

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